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The McKinney Convention & Visitors Bureau (Visit McKinney) received three Idea Fair awards from the 2018 Annual Texas Association of Convention and Visitors Bureau (TACVB) conference held in Sugar Land earlier this month.

TACVB’s Idea Fair promotes excellence in destination marketing. Goals of the Idea Fair awards are to generate awareness of the quality work done by its members as they promote their destinations to leisure and business travelers. Judges’ Choice winners are selected by a panel of judges comprised of tourism industry experts, with one award being selected from all entries in a given category, regardless of budget. The Peoples' Choice competition allows tourism industry peers to weigh in on their favorites as well; these entries are voted on in various budget categories.

The MCVB brought home the Peoples' Choice and Judges' Choice awards in the Convention Promotion category for videos of five meeting and event venues/spaces in McKinney. The MCVB worked with videographer Paul Reynolds of PWR Visual Media to create the videos which can be viewed on both the Visit McKinney YouTube Channel and in the Meeting Planner's Guide section of the MCVB’s website, VisitMcKinney.com.

“We wanted a tool that would make it easier for meeting and event planners who were unable to make it to McKinney for a personal site visit that would showcase what some of our venues and hotels have to offer,” said Dee-dee Guerra, MCVB Executive Director. “Needless to say, all the positive feedback from them means we will be doing more venue videos in the future.”

Guerra added that the MCVB was also excited not only to be honored to receive these two awards but also to learn that one conference session referenced the videos on the VisitMcKinney website as an example of a positive and innovative tool for use by meeting and event planners.

The MCVB also received a Judges’ Choice award for Cooperative Marketing for the downtown area shuttle, DASH. The DASH (Downtown Area Shuttle) was a cooperative project between the MCVB, McKinney Main Street, and the McKinney Community Development Corporation to safely move downtown visitors and residents around the downtown area during the ongoing development of two parking garages and new parking lots located on the perimeter of the square. Downtown businesses provide sponsorship each year to provide ongoing use and maintenance of the DASH. These sponsors' logos appear on the sides of the vehicle.

Members may enter their campaigns in the following categories: Advertising, Cooperative Marketing, Convention Promotion, Local Awareness, Sports Marketing, Tourism Promotion, National Tourism Week, Website, Mobile Site/App, and Video. Each award contains four budget categories to allow participation from all TACVB members - Under $350,000; $350,000 to $999,999, and $1 million to $2,999,999 million, and $3 million plus.

“We had a record 75 entries this year,” said Sarah Page, TACVB Chief Operating Officer. “The winners faced stiff competition and these awards are well-deserved”.